A new analysis of more than 1,400 Instacart pay records finds that the average Instacart worker is paid just $7.66/hour, after accounting for the costs of mileage and additional payroll taxes borne by independent contractors.
About half of all jobs and half of all weekly earnings reports show pay that’s below the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour, after expenses. Just 6% of weekly pay reports and 13% of jobs showed pay that meets the standard of $15 + expenses.
This unique analysis was made possible by the substantial amount of data we assembled from Instacart shoppers across the country at both the job level and the weekly pay level. The data offers a first-of-its-kind window through the gig economy’s opaque pay models into what kind of equivalent pay people are actually making.
The full report is available online here: Delivering Inequality: What Instacart really pays, and how the company shifts costs to workers.